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Public Order
Customs and Excise Department
The Customs and Excise Department is responsible primarily for the collection of revenue on dutiable goods, prevention of duty evasion, suppression of drug trafficking and abuse, prevention and detection of smuggling, and protection of intellectual property rights. The department also enforces legislation to protect consumer interests, safeguard and facilitate legitimate trade and industry, uphold Hong Kong's trading integrity and fulfil relevant international obligations. At the year end, it had 7,286 posts (see also Chapter 5).
Revenue Protection and Collection
The department collects excise duties from commodities stipulated in the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance: liquor, tobacco, hydrocarbon oil and methyl alcohol. It administers a licensing and permit system to ensure no dutiable commodities, whether imported or locally manufactured, are released for local consumption unless full duty has been paid. During the 2018-19 financial year, the department collected $10.6 billion in excise duties, about 1 per cent less than in 2017-18.
The department assesses the taxable values of motor vehicles under the Motor Vehicles (First Registration Tax) Ordinance, resulting in the collection of $9.4 billion first registration tax by the Transport Department in 2018-19, during which 60,997 motor vehicles were first registered.
The Customs and Excise Department takes sustained enforcement action against illicit cigarette activities on all fronts and cooperates with Mainland and overseas customs authorities to stamp out cross-boundary cigarette smuggling through intelligence exchange.
In 2019, the department detected 17,367 cases involving the smuggling, storage, distribution and peddling of illicit cigarettes, a 28 per cent increase from 2018, and seized 55.5 million illicit cigarettes. Fines were imposed on 15,431 people, a year-on-year rise of 38 per cent, for bringing into Hong Kong a total of 3.4 million cigarettes in excess of their duty-free concession.
The department takes sustained action to stamp out illicit fuel activities. In 2019, it detected 31 illicit fuel cases, arrested 63 people and seized 222,600 litres of illicit fuel. The number of cases was the same as that in 2018.
Anti-narcotics Operations
The department takes vigorous enforcement action to prevent and suppress the unlawful manufacture, distribution and trafficking of dangerous drugs; to trace, confiscate and recover drug proceeds from illegal drug activities; and to prevent the diversion of chemicals used for the illicit manufacture of dangerous drugs. To combat cross-boundary drug trafficking, the department deploys officers and detector dogs flexibly to boundary control points to strengthen enforcement, and maintains close cooperation, exchanges intelligence and mounts joint operations with local, Mainland and overseas law enforcement agencies. A mechanism of communication and intelligence exchange with the logistics industry is in place to strengthen enforcement on the import and export of cargoes.
In 2019, the department dealt with 245 drug trafficking cases, smashed 10 storage and distribution centres and three manufacturing and attenuating centres, seized 2,169kg of
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